Farewell, Frogville?
Recording studio may close
Frogville may have only three months to live. The popular west-side recording studio — which began 15 years ago as a record label that was home to some of Santa Fe’s most popular country, folk and rock artists — has been losing money for years and will close at the end of December unless things turn around, owner John Treadwell said.
Treadwell, affectionately known as “Big Frog,” said in a Facebook post Monday that declining revenue prompted the decision.
“It’s been a great fun 15 year run,” Treadwell wrote, “but after paying the bills last year I made a grand total $528 soooo, I’m getting out of the music biz.”
He said that after expenses over the past five years, he netted less than $20,000.
But by Tuesday, Treadwell wasn’t as definitive about getting out of the music industry. In an interview, he said there’s a chance, if just a small one, that a new business model could extend the life of the studio.
“Hopefully, it’s not gone,” he said. “The town’s got three months to rally. … I don’t want to kill the studio.”
Treadwell, who moved to Santa Fe in 1989 to study art at the nowdefunct College of Santa Fe, said the origins of Frogville sprang from his friendship with Tha Muse Meant, one of the original Frogville bands. That led to connections with other bands and artists, including Hundred Year Flood, Joe West “and a handful of other folks.”
The distinctive Frogville name came from Frog, a dog belonging to Nathan Moore of Tha Muse Meant. In keeping with the frog theme, Treadwell said he always wanted the studio to be a “lily pad” for musicians. Frogville artists included Goshen, Boris McCutcheon & the Salt Licks, Bill Hearne, Broomdust Caravan, Stephanie Hatfield, The Strange,
Paula Rhea McDonald and others.
“It was a real spirit of collaboration, a family feeling,” West said Wednesday. “It felt like a real scene. … We probably look back at those days with romanticism. We were all young, naive, hopeful and full of aspirations.”
As Frogville’s reputation grew, several national musicians — including bluesman Taj Mahal, famed western swing fiddler Johnny Gimbal, John Popper of Blues Traveler and singer Shannon McNally — would record there.
Yet for all the good memories, Treadwell, 51, seemed ready to start a new chapter. He said his wife, Yoko, who works at a local bakery, wants to live in a real house; the recording studio gradually took over the house on the couple’s property off Calle Nopal.
A few years ago, they bought a single-wide mobile home to live in on the property.
Since the outset, Frogville Studios has used just one engineer for virtually all its work. Until recently, that was Bill Palmer, a musician who has played in such bands as Hundred Year Flood and the TV Killers. Palmer split with Frogville to start a new independent recording business and is looking for a local studio space.
Working exclusively with one engineer, he said, meant that many days the studio would be in use just a few hours a day — and none at all if Palmer took a vacation. This limited the amount of money the studio could make, Treadwell said.
After Palmer left, Treadwell tapped Jason Reed as head engineer, and, according to Reed, manager of the studios. “I don’t know if I can save a sinking ship, but I know I’m going to give it everything I’ve got,” he posted on Facebook this week.
Treadwell said he was approached by several recording engineers and record producers interested in Frogville after his Facebook post.
“We got calls from eight or nine engineers yesterday,” he said.
Frogville’s financial problems reflect not only the limitations of the music business in Santa Fe but the harsh realities of the 21st-century music business in general. As the Frogville label was getting started, fewer and fewer people were buying CDs. In recent years, music streaming
on Spotify and other platforms has further depressed the market. “Streaming killed everyone,” Treadwell said. As the audience that loved Frogville’s music grew older, fewer people headed out to hear live music. And that means fewer people are buying CDs or LPs at live gigs.
Today, Treadwell said, “you can record on your iPhone. You don’t really need a recording studio anymore.”
For several years, Frogville hosted several music festivals spotlighting its artists. And Treadwell hosts a Frogville Radio Hour on KBAC. However, there are tentative plans to end the show in mid-November, he said.
It’s the early Frogville era that its core musicians remember most fondly. Treadwell recalled how in the early days some of the bands were basically camping out on his property in vans.
“The early years were magical,” Palmer said. “In those days, there were always kids running around. There was a rooster John had there for a while who you could hear on some of those early records.”
“It’s been a great ride,” Treadwell said. “I don’t have any regrets about it, except maybe for not opening it up to other engineers earlier on.”